


Change of Season

by ilovehowyouletmefall



Series: Buffy Drabbles [11]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 08:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovehowyouletmefall/pseuds/ilovehowyouletmefall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: Autumn Leaves</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change of Season

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of a "Five Things" series called "Five Loves: Rupert Giles" that can be found on my lj (blueanddollsome) or on fanfiction.net (dollsom). I only really like two of the pieces, though, so that's all I'm posting here.

Throughout the autumn he'd told himself that once they got to Buffy, everything would be alright. Buffy was home free, she was a hero, she was California, eternal summer. Giles had spent the last few months watching things fall: the Council, potentials; girls curled on the ground and spattered with red. Buffy had fallen in the past, both literally and figuratively, but, both literally and figuratively, she had always been reborn, stronger and more beautiful than ever. Most recently it had been a long and tortured rebirth, but she had prevailed in the end as always. When Giles had seen Buffy last she was so bright and eager to live again; he returned to that memory of her like a mantra, like a prayer, every time he met with death.

When at last he arrived in Sunnydale with three -- only three -- potentials, it was colder than he'd remembered, but as unnaturally green as ever, and for once Giles welcomed the sight. The cold persisted when they got to Buffy's, but he ignored it -- perhaps he carried the chill of death with him -- along with how dry she seemed around the edges. Then another potential fell, and so did Buffy, bruised and bloodied, they were all falling. And Giles wondered just what spectacular feat of heroism he had expected, and why Buffy always proved to be human just when he had grown accustomed to the fact that she was so much more. And, as he often had over the years, Giles wondered whether it was Buffy herself, or the idea of her that he had fallen in love with; the girl, or just the hero.


End file.
